As I slogged through information on thousands of potential grad schools around the world, my one criterion – heavy on the languages – just didn’t seem to be anywhere. I had jumped wildly between five languages in my high school and undergraduate years, and the idea of having to pick just one was not appealing.
As I scanned the course catalogue at MIIS, my otherwise perfect dream school, I struggled with the eternal dilemma: Spanish or French? Or Arabic?! Giving up one in favor of the other seemed a scandalous waste of opportunity (or in our International Economics parlance, a high opportunity cost). “Why can’t I take them all?” I whined to my advisor.
She patiently informed me that, not being the first linguistic overachiever MIIS has seen, there was already something that gave would-be polyglots a clever alternative to degree requirements: B.U.I.L.D. (Beyond yoUrself In Language Development).
I know a lot of people who look aghast at the idea of taking a language class “for fun” but luckily for me, MIIS is almost entirely populated with the exact kind of person who does think it’s fun. Seriously. All of a sudden, a bright vista of tongue-twisting languages opened up – Italian, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Korean, Bulgarian, Mandarin, Japanese, German – even American Sign Language!
The MIIS web site has a little blurb on how B.U.I.L.D. got started as the idea of a “language club to give future teachers a venue to get some experience in the classroom and to give students a chance to learn a language without prerequisites.”
Instead of starting something new, I decided to reunite with a couple of old flames before they burned out completely. My Portuguese and French classes are the highlight of my week, and I can’t stop telling people how much I love B.U.I.L.D. for letting me explore beyond my course credit limits. Who knows? Maybe I’ll tackle Bulgarian next semester.
Be sure to check out the B.U.I.L.D. blog and web site:
http://www.wix.com/miisbuild/webpage#
http://sites.middlebury.edu/groups/build-269258173/blog/